sadoldgit

Delighted for Sadiq Khan. Thank goodness that dreadful Susan Hall failed - another in a long line of god awful Tories like Braverman, Badenoch, Patel, Rees-Mogg, Truss, Gullis etc. etc. etc. He takes a lot of racist abuse for being a Muslim so fair play to him for being prepared to put up with it for an unprecedented third term. This is a victory for his clean air policy too. What a great weekend so far - we beat Leeds, Sunak gets a kicking again and enough of the electorate get off of their backsides to keep the crazies away from power (and even the successful Tory mayor has distanced himself from Sunak!). Happy days with hopefully more to come soon 🥳

I think that the likeliehood of women/girls being assaulted by a trans woman is minimal. Yes, women/girls want a safe space, we all do, including trans people. The simple fact is that women/girls are far more likely to be assaulted by someone they are acquainted with (including family members) than they are by a random trans person. Whilst clearly an issue, it has been blown out of all reasonable proportion and we know why. As with the small boats, sick benefits and all of the other issues that the flailing Tories and the right wing media are throwing at us, it is all about deflection. The vast majority of trans people are not a threat to society and just want to go about their lives without any hassle. Perhaps we should treat them as such and not all as potential sex pests? As has been said already, trans women have been using women toilets for years. How do you stop them without a physical check and how would women/girls feel if they were subjected to a physical examination every time they used a public toilet? If someone is intent on abusing females they will find a way of doing so. Banning trans women from public female toilets will not make women/girls any safer. For those who disagree, do they have the figures for women/girls abused by trans women in public toilets?

The bottom line is that the Israelis are allowed to defend themselves in any way they see fit whereas the Palestinians are not. As for the idea that religion hasn’t got anything to do with this, we are where we are because people take an ancient religious text and use it two thousand years later as evidence that the are entitled to live in certain places. As said, Israeli cabinet ministers are also using biblical references to justify their actions. Ben-Gvir himself quotes the bible in defence of land grabbing in the West Bank. It is beyond naive to say that religion has nothing to do with this ongoing conflict.

As you say, this is for another thread, but I am curious, don’t female changing rooms have individual cubicles? I also wonder how you would manage in the Five Bells pub in Brabourne. It has unisex toilets. Once a person has fully transitioned to female, do you expect them to use male toilets? I know someone who has fully transitioned to male. He has a beard, male pattern baldness and looks more masculine than I do. Although born female how would you feel if he walked into a female toilet while your daughter was there? How do you feel about your daughter sharing space in a changing room with lesbians? I have three daughters and although I worry about them all of the time, the last thing I worry about is their interaction with trans people.

This is the problem now. The Tories have nothing to fight with so they resort to weaponizing issues like trans, migration, sick benefits because they know that will resonate with part of the electorate. You can’t have a grown up conversation or debate now though because they have used these issues as Daily Mail clickbait headlines. Starmer has to tiptoe his way through this minefield where the slightest hint of misstep and it blows up in your face. You mention trans extremists. What about the many trans people who just want to live their lives in a way that feels natural for them? Don’t they deserve more respect than being used a a political football by a failed political party? I also appreciate that this is a big issue for you, but for the right to try and inflate the importance of it to the level of don’t vote for Starmer because he doesn’t know what a woman is is not only demeaning to trans people, but it is hardly a bigger issue than those already stated as being foremost in most voters concerns.

You have exactly the same grasp of global warming as Donald Trump. (And for avoidance of doubt, that is not a good thing).

Throughout this thread, those who have an issue with Muslims and have constantly supported Netanyahu’s actions against the Palestinian people have used the Hamas position that Israel needs to be wiped off of the map as justification for the destruction of Gaza and a large percentage of its population. They managed to completely ignore the same position of a number of members of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians. This is the latest outburst from an Israeli government minister. https://www.mediaite.com/news/israeli-newspaper-calls-for-firing-of-top-netanyahu-minister-over-repeated-calls-for-genocide-of-palestinians/amp/ Netanyahu has also use the word Amalek when describing the situation with Palestinians. Perhaps those who don’t have a problem with the clear and obvious murder of innocent civilians because they are Muslim/Palestinian explain to the rest of us why it is okay to use your own religious/geopolitical dogma to do so if you stand under the Israeli flag rather than the Palestinian flag? A number of us have been saying from the start that the position of extremists on both sides, that the other should be destroyed, is both wrong and untenable. We agree that the attack of 7th October was abhorrent and have witnessed many terrorist incidents carried out by Palestinian terrorist groups over the years. To turn a blind eye to similar atrocities and aggression carried out by the Israelis shows a wilful ignorance of history that can only be based on selective bias. We have all read the posts from the Netanyahu supporters over the years making fun of the Islamic religion. Not once do you see them making fun of similar religious dogma when spouted by the likes of Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. What makes Islam so risible and Judaism sacrosanct in their eyes? How can you be disgusted by what happened on 7th October but ignore the same thing when it is happening on a much larger scale to a different bunch of human beings? As ever, a laughing emoji at the bottom just displays ignorance and a basic lack of humanity. BINGO! 🙄 Would these people use laughing emojis under posts about the Holocaust?

It’s amazing how easy it is to use these distraction techniques to take attention away from things like the cost of living crisis and the state of the NHS. You expect it from the Mail, Express and Sun but it sad to see a once respected organisation like the Telegraph sinking that low too.

It is a pointless exercise as the PM never answers the questions from the LOTO anyway. It would make a pleasant change if the Speaker started to press the PM to actually give a proper answer to Starmer’s questions. Sunak won’t of course because if he did answer honestly he would look even more pathetic. Meanwhile Badenoch is making herself look a right chump, I suppose it is all a part of her leadership bid. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13370317/amp/Kemi-Badenoch-historians-exaggerate-importance-slavery-colonialism-Britain-growth-world-power.html

Kemi Badenoch goes on the radio today to tell us that this is proof that Rwanda is a “safe place.”

Still shot 4 people dead and injured 9 others and my point was imagine the outcry if the same thing happened here by armed personnel deployed by the authorities (and we have had innocent people shot dead by armed police). Meanwhile…before 7th October https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/29/idf-human-rights-violation-gaza-us-state-department

Who can blame them although I don’t think you can lay that claim to the pro Palestinian protests now (and women weren’t drafted). I wasn’t suggesting that the student protests were responsible for ending the Vietnam war but they were certainly a part of a very large pressure group. The shooting dead of 4 students by the National Guard in Ohio was a major contributing factor in turning public opinion against the war. Can you imagine our special forces shooting people dead in London on pro Palestinian marches? And yes, I was 14 at the time so it was my era. I remember very well how the protests grew both in the US and internationally the longer the war went on. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated in 1968 and major riots kicked off in Paris, (caused in part in protest to American imperialism - and before you say they were a number of internal contributing causes in France, yes I know, which is why I said in part). There were plenty of major protests in London over the war too. Volatile times. I was responding originally to Whelks comment that student protests wouldn’t change a thing and my original point still stands, which is pressure is growing internally in the US over Biden’s support for Israel to the extent that he has already started to pressure on Netanyahu to change his approach.

More pesky antisemites? https://www.euronews.com/2024/04/29/international-criminal-court-considering-issuing-arrest-warrant-for-netanyahu

I’m sure the dozen or so detectives who are investigating these alleged crimes with great diligence will get to the bottom of whatever it is they need to get to the bottom of. It’s just a shame that the police haven’t employed the same level of focus on the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Strange priorities from the party of “law and order.”

I think that we all understand just how important US support for Israel is and that support is already wavering. Those of us of a certain age will remember the effect that student unrest had on the US government and the Vietnam war (for any youngsters here check out Neil Young’s Ohio). Biden is facing growing pressure to stop providing munitions to Israel. It is very naive to say that internal unrest in the US and growing support for the Palestinians will not effect how the White House deals with the situation as it progresses, especially with a presidential election looming. *** I’ll say it again, people who use laughing emojis when others discuss the systematic killing of innocent civilians of any ethic or religious backgrounds are seriously deranged.